It is about a young man named Lionel (Timothy Balme) whose life takes a turn to the worse when his overbearing mother Vera (Elizabeth Moody) is bitten by a rat-monkey of Sumatra, infecting her with a strange disease that rapidly turns her into a hungry zombie that starts infecting every unlucky fellow that she comes across. If having a zombie mom wasn't enough of a problem, Lionel also has to deal with his opportunistic uncle Les (Ian Watkins) and hide his deadly secret from his girlfriend Paquita (Diana Peñalver).

It is a squicktastic gore fest. Intentionally hilarious in all its splattery glory. That's all you need to know. Not to be confused with the 2016 dramedy series of the same name.

Tropes:

An Arm and a Leg: At the beginning of the movie, when the explorers assistants discover that their boss has been bitten by the rat monkey, they chop off his right hand, then his left arm, and then his head once they see he got bitten on the forehead.

And Show It to You: Happens to one poor girl at the party when the zombies break out of the basement.

Asshole Victim: Uncle Les, the thugs that assault Lionel in the cemetery... and then Lionel's mom as we learn that she murdered Lionel's father and his mistress.

Break the Cutie: Happened to Lionel years before the film began when his father died in a swimming accident. Turns out that was a lie made up by his mother. The real moment came when Lionel witnessed Vera drowning both his father and mistress in the bathtub.

Enfant Terrible/Undead Child: Baby Selwyn. Who was conceived after its parents' zombification and was born apparently about a day later.

Everything's Better with Monkeys: Lionel and Paquita certainly think so when they look at some monkeys in the zoo...only to change their minds once they see their rather gruesome neighbor, the Sumatran Rat Monkey.

Evil Matriarch: Lionel's mother. She bullies him relentlessly and sabotages his social life. After her zombification, she gets worse.

Evil Sounds Deep: After Vera turns into giant bloated thing, she regains some lucidity and the ability to speak with a very deep and not-so-feminine voice.

Fan Disservice: That... THING that Lionel's mom turns into is completely naked, disfigured, mutated and bloated. If the gore killed your appetite for the next few days, then the image of her will kill your sex drive for the next few weeks.

Groin Attack: Nearly every character in the movie hits Uncle Les in the groin at some point, once using a severed arm as a club. The lout urinating on a zombie's grave comes off even worse.

Half the Man He Used to Be: During the House Party Massacre scene, one poor bastard tries to slip through a hole into the kitchen from various zombies and two people try to pull him through as Zombies start going for his lower body on the other side. When the two people finally pull him out, all that's left of his lower body is his bloodied leg bones, his pelvis and his feet still intact thanks to his shoes.

As is Zombie Void, who while trying to break through the bottom of the bathroom door, has his stomach impaled by Lionel stomping him into the broken wood splinters. Void then crawls enough to rip himself in two so he could get to Lionel.

Helping Hands: Even dismemberment doesn't completely stop a zombie, with severed limbs continuing to attack after being severed. Taken Up to Eleven with a complete set of bowels becoming animate and chasing Lionel.

Can't reach the starter for the lawnmower? Just grab a severed arm!

High-Pressure Blood: Braindead is the bloodiest movie of all time, with blood being pumped at five gallons per second during the lawnmower climax. 'Nuff said.

Shout-Out: Jackson later gives a Shout-Out to Braindead in his "King Kong" remake: one of the crates coming back from Skull Island on the expedition ship is labeled "Sumatran Rat Monkey". And below that, the words "BEWARE THE BITE". In the accompanying book of the movie it is said that they live in chasms and ravines of Skull Island (AKA that scene with all the huge worms and bugs), one large picture in the book even has a hard-to-see Rat Monkey in it.

And the Paths of the Dead in Jackson's Lord of the Rings was the same location as this film's opening scene.

Just Eat Gilligan: So much could have been solved if Lionel had just killed his mother after she fully turned into a zombie. Or killed the zombies that she created rather than keep them all sedated. Or, when he finally did decide to kill them, to use some more traditional methods (like chopping them up or cremating them), instead of using what he and Paquita thought was poison (which was actually an animal stimulant). But alas, otherwise, there'd be no plot, and nothing to laugh at.

Let the Past Burn: The film ends this way, presumably destroying the remaining zombies.

Losing Your Head: A nurse who's taking care of Lionel's mother gets her head ripped off and it's only still attached by a flap of skin.

Love at First Sight: Sort of. Paquita is initially not impressed by Lionel and finds both his presence and clumsy antics annoying... until he accidentally forms a star symbol, which she was previously told would be how to recognize her true love. It's then she gets interested.

Momma's Boy: Lionel. Even after she is turned into a zombie, he doesn't kill her and instead confines her in the basement. He remains devoted to her mother until it's revealed that she drowned his father and his mistress in the bathtub.

Our Zombies Are Different: They're a combination of the Plague and Flesh-Eating variants. Their limbs or even entrails can develop minds of their own, they can have babies, and after a while, may even mutate into bloated inhuman monsters.

Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: As other tropes on this page might suggest, this is something of an understatement. In the final act the amount of gore rises to utterly ridiculous levels.

Rule of Funny: Peter Jackson finished the film greatly under-budget and ahead of time. He used the extra resources to go back and extend the scene where Lionel takes Selwyn to the park, for the sake of this trope.

Rule of Symbolism: Lionel being dragged back to his mother's womb and fighting his way out (The Other Wiki's plot summary even describes this as "an over-the-top Freudian 'rebirth'").

Scare Chord: The music makes a noticeable jump when Lionel discovers he injected the zombies with animal stimulant.

Satellite Love Interest: Paquita's first boyfriend, Roger. Her relationship with Lionel starts like this as well, but then they both develop genuine interest for each other.

Roger's a bit of a Deconstruction; since he had no real common ground with Paquita, she broke it off with him in very short order.

Vertigo Effect: Used in the shot of Lionel's face when he sees the hyperactive zombies pop out of the ground.

Villainous Valour: Uncle Les takes out an entire swarm of zombies with only a pair of cleavers.

Villains Want Mercy: After Lionel has the Intestine-creature in his mercy, it smacks it's kidneys together in a pleading motion, to no avail.

Vomit Indiscretion Shot: When Paquita tries to dispose of Selwyn with a blender, she hesitates. Then it vomits a stream of bright-green puke on her face.

Would Not Hurt a Zombie Child: At first, Paquita hesitates to kill Selwyn as it wails pathetically in the zombie blender...until the above trope happens and it laughs about it. Then she purées that little bastard (or at least tries to) right then and there.

You Killed My Father: Near the end of the film, Lionel finds out that his mother drowned both his father and a woman that he had an affair with in the bathtub.

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